There are certain types of gasoline engines, especially two-cycle engines which not only require gasoline as fuel, but also it is essential that certain proportions of lubricating oil be mixed with the gasoline in order to lubricate the very high speed moving parts of the engines. There may also be other types of gasoline engines which require lubricating oil to be mixed with the fuel in addition to such two-cycle engines. In any event, the mixing of certain proportions of lubricating oil with fuel, particularly as the same are poured into a gasoline tank for the engine, presents certain difficulties. In effect, the two hands of an operator are not always adequate to hold the funnel in the filling hole of the tank, pour or hold the nozzle of a fuel hose or can and also hold the container of lubricating oil because under best practice, the oil and fuel preferably are introduced into the tank at the same time so as to become thoroughly mixed with each other.
Certain attempts have been made previously to solve the problem of adequately holding the various items referred to above, some of them being simple, while others are relatively complex. Certain of these previous attempts are illustrated in the following U.S. Pats.:
No. 200,149, dated Feb. 12, 1878, in the name of J. Newman, illustrates a funnel and a filling can having a handle thereon which is adapted to pour powder into cartridge shells. The illustration is meager but, nevertheless, shows a simple hinge between the elongated cup-like container for the powder and the rim of a funnel which is used to introduce the powder into the cartridge shell or casing.
No. 221,137, dated Oct. 28, 1879, in the name of C. T. Wright, shows a hingedly connected measuring cup and funnel which is modified to accommodate the measuring cup, the arrangement being such that the upper end of the funnel is largely occupied by the end of the measuring cup when it is pivoted to pour the contents thereof into the funnel, whereby very little room remains for pouring fuel into the funnel, for example, while the measuring cup may be used to pour oil thereinto.
No. 2,092,062, dated Sept. 1, 1959, in the name of O. A. Von Smekal, shows a pair of concentric funnels, the central one being used to receive gasoline while the outer one receives oil, the oil-receiving space of the outer one being circular and having no provision for holding a container of oil, which, presumably must be held manually with respect to the outer portion of the funnel assembly.
No. 3,055,554, dated Sept. 25, 1962, in the name of Wight, shows a relatively sophisticated gasoline pump of the service station type on which the discharge is associated by means of a bypass with a receptacle adapted to contain oil which may be permitted to discharge into the filling hose simultaneously with gasoline when the valve to the oil receptacle is open.
It is the principal object of the present invention to provide a relatively simple funnel and oil charging or metering arrangement that is inexpensive to manufacture and requires a minimum of handling requirements incident to automatically holding a suitable receptacle or container, or even a cartridge, of lubricating oil in a manner that requires no manual holding of the same during the filling of a gasoline tank with lubricating oil and gasoline that are simultaneously introduced into the funnel and thereby thoroughly mixed during the filling of the gasoline tank, details of such object and other objects being set forth below, as follows: